Effects of a Sting

Details of my own experience

Disclaimer
A Simulated Sting
Approach
Reaction
Duration of symptoms
Summary

DISCLAIMER !

It is important for me to stress that I am not encouraging anybody to attempt the following exercise.

Any person deciding to repeat this experiment does so entirely at their own risk!

W A R N I N G

I strongly advise you NOT to attempt this yourself

A Simulated Sting

To satisfy my own curiosity, I deliberately "stung" myself to test my reaction to European scorpion venom. Although not a scientific approach, my intention was to simulate a sting in a controlled manner in order to determine the effects that I would experience from envenomation by a European scorpion.

Approach

I sterilised a sharp clean sewing needle with a naked flame. I crushed the sting of a large dead adult female scorpion and spread the venom over a patch of skin on the inner side of my left forearm. I then lightly pierced the skin using the sterilised needle, allowing the venom to be drawn into the puncture wound through capillary action. Test conducted on 3 August 2001.

Reaction

Within approximately ten minutes of receiving the sting, I started to experience these symptoms:-

numbness of the skin surrounding the site of the sting
minor swelling & itching of the skin surrounding the sting - see note (a) below
slight aching of the joints of my left arm (elbow and shoulder), with the arm feeling "heavy" (b)
heavy-headed (c)
very minor disorientation, but not quite dizziness
dryness of the mouth
tingling of the left shoulder-blade and back (as if somebody was lightly touching it)
slight numbness of the fingers of both hands (loss of sensation, but not loss of control)
an overall sensation of being tired (d)
headache (e)

Notes:
(a) similar to a mosquito bite
(b) a sensation equivalent to waking up after having slept with my arm tucked under my body - i.e. semi-numb
(c) much like waking from a deep sleep and not being fully awake
(d) probably very minor muscle paralysis, like the effects of a soporific drug
(e) I already had a headache before the sting, so it may not have been related

Duration of symptoms

These symptoms lasted for roughly three hours, with the effects reaching a peak a little after an hour or so. The symptoms then started to decline, with no long lasting after-effects, although my left arm continued to tingle until the next day.

Summary

Overall, I suppose my experience was similar to having mild influenza. I suffered only minimal discomfort. However, I am not ruling out the possibility of a psychosomatic reaction for some of the above sensations.

Bear in mind that having used the entire contents of the crushed sting, the dosage of venom that I received was probably much higher than that normally injected with a natural sting by a European scorpion.